iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tom

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 5h

bureacratically legible quantifiable indicators are the only game in town for understanding things at a policy level, like full stop. they're frequently wrong. people often use them to lie. they contain a multitude of biases. they are also the only option.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 5h

If it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not why did you say it was a fact?

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 5h

You seemed very confident in this statement earlier. Why are you suddenly retreating to “Well it’s bad PR to tell people they’re not poor,” a thing which neither I nor Will are doing? Is your statement a fact or not?

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 6h

IS it a fact that wages for 90% of us have been stagnant in real terms? Is that actually, literally, in reality, a real, actual, fact? Or are you saying that’s what it *feels like* is the case? The Biden recovery gave poor Americans their biggest raise in decades, far outpacing inflation.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I’m not asking anyone to starve themselves. I am saying a cheeseburger is a luxury that people choose to indulge in when they could easily eat something else instead, and its damage is so minuscule that most non-vegans consider it offensive to even suggest cutting back for environmental reasons.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Skip one burger and you have successfully offset hundreds of ChatGPT queries. The environmental impact is not nothing, but it’s minuscule compared to many things people do every day without thought.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It’s not, but if it was, natural language search engines that can interpret requests intelligently are still insanely useful.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

That looks like a really beautiful place! I’m glad you had a good time

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Reposted by Tom

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Are AIs conscious?? Probablyyyy not, but "probably" isn't "definitely," and it's a very hard question to answer conclusively (especially given we can't conclusively answer things like "are humans conscious"). So maybe exercise a little bit of humility instead of roundly mocking anyone who raises it?

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

What changed is that we actually GOT machines that can speak on a human level, do something that looks like reasoning, do something that looks like creativity, and can take arbitrary actions independently. And now Picard’s argument doesn’t sound so compelling anymore. It’s a worthy question to ask!

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Picard’s whole argument in Measure of a Man is that he doesn’t know if Data is conscious, but that because he acts like he is, we must not discard the possibility just because he’s made of a different material than we are. This was considered compelling and moving. Is it still so? What changed?

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Well I think it’s pretty relevant that the science fiction from back in the day almost all ended up on the opposite side of this problem. It was considered fairly obvious a machine displaying traits of consciousness is probably conscious. I don’t think LLMs ARE, but they certainly have the traits

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

We can also push updates that completely change human behavior. Just ask Phineas Gage

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The Chinese room is a thought experiment whose only rhetorical power comes from going “wouldn’t that be crazy tho. like wouldn’t that be so crazy. think about how crazy that would be” It does not actually address the possibility of machine consciousness or describe why neurons are special.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The math they are running is producing things functionally indistinguishable from creativity and reason. Call them shmeativity and shmeason if you want, but the fact of the matter is that they are doing it, and this is a big challenge to the belief that creativity and reason are human-only.

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geoffrey 💀 (scary now) @parsnip.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

simply do not understand the anti-impeachment impulse on the left. even if you think there's no point to impeachment without conviction (i think this is wrong on the merits, impeachment means public inquiry), what else do you think a democratic congress is going to do under this president?

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Five-dollar footlongs were a thing because it was a promo stunt where they intentionally used an item as a loss leader to drive up more business, and local owners hated it because it raised the profile of the company but cut into profits.

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

In theory there may be people who obsess over “Zionists” controlling American politics who aren’t anti-Semites but at this point I pretty much assume anyone speaking this way is one step away at best from going full ZOG.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I’m back at my parents’ house for a bit before we go on vacation and their younger cat has always been very skittish so I don’t get to pet her much Last night she came over and was rubbing her face all over my hand and purring and purring and purring I just about died it was so cute

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

If I believed climate change was primarily caused by parking lots and its main impact was that it will make all the oceans evaporate, I would have correctly concluded that climate change is bad, but I would not have any useful input on how it should be addressed.

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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

the thing about impeaching Vought is that it will ruin his life. pull his kids and wife in for sixteen hour depositions. refer them all for perjury. scream in his face. when you're done, if it didn't work, do it again.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Every time they’ve tried to make it do that, it’s backfired horribly (e.g. Mechahitler or the South African white genocide phase) and they’ve had to revert it. It will sometimes spit out conservative-coded stuff but it will also sometimes spit out left-coded stuff. It’s not consistently very biased

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

oh my goddddd so cute :3

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Silverfox @silverfox5213.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Expectation vs Reality

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uosdɯᴉS ɐuɐꓷ 🦄 @danacorn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The thread being screenshotted actually says “don’t vote for Dems and tell others not to.” Seriously. “Here is a map of how things have gotten worse for trans people, exclusively in red states, while democrats have held firm. This proves you should stop voting for democrats.” This is…deranged.

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Reposted by Tom

TOM @tomwalker.bsky.social · 17/07/2023

KOKO THE GORILLA: Koko birkin bag. Practical Koko possession bag RESEARCHER: No, Koko. You can’t have a Birkin bag. KOKO: Good Birkin good Koko give beautiful Koko deserve gorilla RESEARCHER: Koko, we simply can’t afford a Birkin bag. It is an unjustifiable expense. KOKO: jealousy professor

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Reposted by Tom

Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is one of the most maddening thigns about this court: Not just the substantive rulings, but how they think about “irreperable harm.” If the Most Special Boy has to wait a month to do a thing he REALLY wants to, that’s irreperable harm. Actual large-scale human suffering? Meh.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I wouldn’t say normal but they are closer to normal at least

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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

whenever anyone says "watching a genocide in realtime," i know that they're one of the people who made a virtue of watching the eqiuvalent of LiveLeak videos and boiled their entire brain

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Reposted by Tom

brent 🌹🗽 @therealbrent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I’ve never been in denial about it but I do think today was the first day I truly realized how much antisemitism is spreading and being normalized in online far-left circles. It’s scary and frightening and is only going to get worse if the left insists it’s not a problem.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

ppl on Twitter are talking about deer skull fursonas again and calling them the wrong thing again

Tbh I think Native American beliefs being used in cryptid stuff are the most clear cut examples of cultural appropriation out there.

Usually claims of appropriation are just “a white person is doing this thing that wasn’t invented by white people” and it’s like okay what’s the problem here

But with Native American stuff there’s a long history of white people just straight-up overwriting indigenous beliefs and having the altered version be vastly more recognized and well known than the genuine article

And that’s something I can genuinely see why people would be upset about

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

lol I guess pat figured out that inflation adjusted means adjusted for inflation

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My comment about inflation rising slower than income is about inflation rising slower than income over the time since 2008. There are always ups and downs in between, but the cumulative increase in inflation since 2008 is less than the cumulative increase in wages since 2008.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

What do you think “adjusted so that the values are in like terms” means if not adjusting for CPI What exactly do you think the difference is between adjusting for inflation and adjusting for inflation

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It adjusts it so that the values are in like terms **BY** adjusting it for CPI. That’s what adjusting for inflation **MEANS**

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Yes, you are claiming income (adjusted for inflation) has not increased since 2008, and I am saying yes it has. Your evidence income has not increased since 2008 was an article saying household income has increased since 2019 to an all-time high (meaning higher than 2008)

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Again, we are talking about 2008 versus now, not 2019 versus now, but your evidence ALSO shows that we’re doing better than we were in 2019! So I ask again, are you actually going to listen if I provide a source saying Americans are earning more than in 2008, or are you going to ignore it?

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You’re really not, though. He’s saying Americans are doing worse than in 2008, and you shared a link saying Americans are doing better than in 2019.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The context of this conversation is that people believe they are worse off now than they were in the 2008 recession, and you’re sharing a news article saying that they are better off now than they were in 2019, which was not a recession. This doesn’t disprove my point, it strengthens it.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I’m speaking colloquially. “Raise” meaning the population as a whole making more money, which includes people moving to new jobs, not necessarily that the total number of raises for a single job position with no promotions or resignations outpaces inflation.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Notice how you’re spouting platitudes instead of talking about how things actually are materially worse for most people than in 2008. Probably because they’re not actually materially worse than in 2008.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If I cite sources showing Americans are making more money relative to inflation than they were in the 2008 recession are you going to accept that, or are you going to dodge to a different issue? I’ve jumped through these hoops before and so far it’s never helped, people aren’t interested in sources

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We’ve had many times throughout history where there have been jackbooted thugs and there has not been a global existential collapse. In fact it’s usually the opposite- historically, jackbooted thugs are a sign that the regime *creating* the jackbooted thugs is about to collapse, and things improve.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“X is a symptom of Y” is not equivalent to “If you have X you have Y” Jackbooted thugs COULD be a symptom of global existential collapse, but they can be a symptom of many different things.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Once again: “The economy” is not “Josh” If you’re getting screwed, that really sucks, and you deserve better, but that is objectively not the case for the vast majority of people. We know most Americans have gotten raises higher than the rate of inflation. We know most Americans are doing better.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Where did Stancil say anything about the stock market? He IS talking about wages, healthcare, and food prices.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The problem with this theory is that the vibecession started right about when poor people got their biggest raise in generations and wealth inequality shrank considerably. The Biden recovery was not the economy eating from the bottom up.

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Tom @tbestig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“The economy” is not “Josh” Literally every single point in the entirety of human history has had some nonzero number of people worse off than before. If we measure the economy based on whether any one person can say they are suffering, it’s a worthless metric. The point is HOW MANY are suffering?

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